From the October 2002 Idaho Observer:

Bush administration plotted “War on Terrorism” before 2000 election

by Neil Mackay of the Sunday Herald, Scotland

A SECRET blueprint for U.S. global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure “regime change” even before he took power in January 2001.

The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a “global Pax Americana” was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled, “Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century,” was written in September, 2000, by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: “The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.”

The PNAC document supports a “blueprint for maintaining global U.S. pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests.”

This “American grand strategy” must be advanced for “as far into the future as possible,” the report says. It also calls for the U.S. to “fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars” as a “core mission.”

The report describes American armed forces abroad as “the cavalry on the new American frontier.” The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that said the U.S. must “discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.”

The PNAC report also:

- refers to key allies such as the UK as “the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership”;

- describes peace-keeping missions as “demanding American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations”;

- reveals worries in the administration that Europe could rival the USA;

- says “even should Saddam pass from the scene” bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently -- despite domestic opposition in the Gulf regimes to the stationing of U.S. troops -- as “Iran may well prove as large a threat to U.S. interests as Iraq has”;

- spotlights China for “regime change” saying “it is time to increase the presence of American forces in southeast Asia.” This, it says, may lead to “American and allied power providing the spur to the process of democratisation in China”;

- calls for the creation of “U.S. Space Forces”, to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent “enemies” using the internet against the U.S.;

- hints that, despite threatening war against Iraq for developing weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. may consider developing biological weapons -- which the nation has banned -- in decades to come. It says: “New methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal', biological -- will be more widely available ... combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool”;

- and pinpoints North Korea, Libya, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes and says their existence justifies the creation of a “world-wide command-and-control system.”

Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP, father of the House of Commons and one of the leading rebel voices against war with Iraq, said: “This is garbage from right-wing think-tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks -- men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war; men like Cheney, who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnam war.

“This is a blueprint for U.S. world domination -- a new world order of their making. These are the thought processes of fantasist Americans who want to control the world. I am appalled that a British Labour Prime Minister should have got into bed with a crew which has this moral standing.”

***

Note: The report is available in .pdf format at PNAC's website at www.newamericancentury.org. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank is chaired by William Kristol, a Republican Party insider and editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, the Weekly Standard.

PNAC, a “non-profit educational organization,” is not hiding its intentions. It's members, a who's who of Republican Party insiders, claim to be “dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: That American leadership is good both for America and for the world; that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle; and that too few political leaders today are making the case for global leadership.”

When the comment above is taken in context with the European press' interpretation of the Sept, 2000 PNAC report that predicted the Bush administration before it was elected, the true purpose of the “War on Terrorism” comes into the light.

What would the nightly news-watching American public think about the new American century as envisioned by those in the Bush administration who make and facilitate domestic and international policies? Do most Americans agree that the United States must take over the world?

We were taught in school to despise megalomaniacs such as Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin for their murderous and imperialistic intentions. How would the PNAC vision differ in the eyes of history? (DWH)